PHOENIX - When he burst on the scene as a 2-year-old in Southern California back in 2004, Diligent Prospect looked like a potential player on the Derby trail. While injury took away much of his 2005 season, Diligent Prospect has managed to find his calling the past year: becoming a quality sprinter. He takes that reputation into Saturday's $45,000 G Malleah Handicap at Turf Paradise. The six-furlong event, which honors the world-record holder for the distance, lured a field of eight.

Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark., has canceled its Thursday through Sunday programs because of winter weather that has left the track unsuitable for racing, officials announced early Thursday.

Racing is scheduled to resume on Thursday, Feb. 8.

Sleet hit Hot Springs on Wednesday night, and temperatures were in the 20s on Thursday morning. Despite crews working the track round the clock, Oaklawn was unable to open for training Monday, Wednesday or Thursday.

BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. - Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin did not know what to expect when a bay colt arrived in his barn a little more than a year ago from Uruguay. The horse had won all his races, was training well, and his exercise rider kept coming back with good reviews. But a veterinarian from Chile happened by his barn one morning at Palm Meadows and threw ice water on his hopes.

"He might have been beating $10,000 claimers," McLaughlin remembers being told. "Good luck."

Rosie Napravnik, Maryland's leading rider last year, will miss eight to 12 weeks while recuperating from three compression fractures in her back.

Napravnik, who will turn 19 on Feb. 9, was injured when her mount, Look Out Lorie, fell after finishing second in last Friday's sixth race at Laurel Park.

The fractures are located in the middle of her back, described in medical terms as the thoracic region.

Beulah Park's Fortune 6 wager was hit Tuesday for $364,589.50, a North American record payoff on a wager less than $1.

The Fortune 6 is a 25-cent pick six wager in which the jackpot carries over until there is a single ticket containing all six winners. The current jackpot began building on Nov. 29 last year. Beulah received permission from the Ohio Racing Commission to carry over the jackpot from the conclusion of its fall meeting on Dec. 22 to the beginning on the winter-spring meeting here on Jan. 6.

Trials to the Grade 1 Los Alamitos Winter Derby and the Grade 1 Los Alamitos Winter Championship will be held on Friday and Saturday, respectively, and there will be mixed emotions in the Be a Bono camp during the Championship trials.

Spencer Childers, 95, owns Be a Bono, the 2004 world champion who begins his fifth racing season in the Championship trials. That's the good. The sad is that the race comes just nine days after the death of Florence Childers, the owner's wife.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Trainer John Ward Jr. would have loved to have won the Grade 3 Hal's Hope Handicap with Strong Contender on Jan. 6. As things turned out, Ward was just glad that his horse escaped a potentially disastrous bumping incident after the start and is able to return for Saturday's Grade 1 Donn Handicap.

It will be the long-term results, not the short-term ones, that Ward is most interested in when Strong Contender goes up against Horse of the Year Invasor in the Donn - a race he may use as a prep for the $1 million Santa Anita Handicap on March 3.

Fans had to wait five extra days for the Rattlesnake Stakes to be run, but based on the performance of 9-1 shot Tie Rod, it was worth the wait.

The $45,000 Rattlesnake, a mile event for 3-year-olds, was originally slated to be run Jan. 21, but was postponed when that day's card was canceled due to inclement weather. It was brought back last Friday, and while most of the attention went to the likes of Ourtickethome, Waltz Time, Derouin, and Mr Charlypotatoes, it was Tie Rod who dominated the proceedings.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Last week, jockey Alex Solis got a call from a friend relating the latest racetrack rumor. The friend asked if Solis was about to announce his retirement after a 26-year career.

"I said, 'I didn't know I was retiring,'" Solis said Wednesday morning.

Game of Skill served notice that he may merit a start in the 2007 WinStar Derby by marching home a nine-length winner over maidens here Jan. 23.

A son of Wild Again, Game of Skill is trained by Chris Hartman. Based in Southern California prior to this start, Game of Skill races for the Turf Express Inc., Mark Cornett, and other partners. Game of Skill finished second twice as a 2-year-old in maiden races at Hollywood Park and Santa Anita Park.

The $600,000 WinStar Derby, at 1 1/8 miles, will be run March 18.